McSorley's Old Ale House

The story

The wishbones hanging above the bar at McSorley's belong to boys who never came home from World War I. They hung them there before shipping out, meaning to collect them on return. The uncollected ones stayed. No piece of memorabilia has left the walls since 1910, which is how the place works: accumulation as memory. New York City's oldest Irish saloon, open since the mid-19th century on East 7th Street, it admitted women only after being legally forced to in 1970. Houdini's handcuffs are still chained to the bar rail. The sawdust floors remain.